Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) worksite enforcement memo:
The Department of Homeland Security has taken an important step to ensure that immigration enforcement supports, rather than interferes with, the effective enforcement of the laws meant to protect all workers in this country. In order to improve wages and working conditions, we must change the current enforcement environment in which employers violate labor laws with impunity, while immigrant workers live in fear. It is long past time for our country to rebalance its worksite enforcement priorities, and this directive guidance is a much-needed step in the fight to remove the barriers to organizing and promote a just recovery for all.
We urge DHS to work closely with our unions on implementation, and continue to call for concrete protections and work authorization for working people demanding safe and fair workplaces. When workers take action to address issues of wage theft, sexual harassment or other violations, it benefits everyone. We must use this opportunity to remove the fear in our workplaces so that all workers, regardless of where we were born, are able to exercise our fundamental rights. That is why we need to pass the PRO Act and ensure that no worker ever risks deportation for demanding justice at work.
Contact: Liz Vlock (202) 637-5018